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Zeidun's mother in her letter to President Bush and Mr Blair, said: "We found his jacket in the river. We shall keep it as a souvenir of the justice my son got from the American soldiers. They came to Iraq under the slogans of democracy and human rights, but in cold blood they wedded my son to death even as he was preparing for his marriage.

"I ask you to open an inquiry. Whatever you do will not bring my son back to life. But maybe this will stop the pain of the other mothers in my country."

Zeidun Fadhil and his cousin Marwan Fadhil were allegedly taken to a remote spot on the shore and ordered into the river at gunpoint. When they refused, the soldiers were said to have forced them into the river. Zeidun, who could not swim, drowned in the strong current. His cousin survived to tell the story.

A lawyer for the family of the dead man said US soldiers in Samarratold the family there would be a full investigation, and that a military investigator had interviewed the surviving cousin as a witness. Nazar Fadhil, the dead man's uncle and the family lawyer, said the US military had ordered Zeidun's body to be exhumed for an autopsy. He said the family was awaiting the arrival of a forensic pathologist. He also said that the US army had offered the family compensation, but that they had refused it.

Zeidun - full name Zeidun Mamun Fadhil al-Samarai - had become engaged three weeks before his death, and was saving for his wedding. The Independent was shown a letter from his mother, Widad, to President George Bush and to Tony Blair in which she demands a full inquiry into her son's death.

Samarra, a Sunni city and one of the main centers of Iraqi resistance to the American occupation, is seething with anger over the alleged circumstances of his drowning.